John F. Kennedy

III

John F. Kennedy’s Early Political Career

In 1944 Kennedy’s older brother, Joseph, was killed on a bombing mission over Belgium. Previously, Joe Kennedy had planned to make his career in politics. Now John Kennedy, working as a reporter for the Hearst International News Service, decided to enter politics himself.

A

Congressman John F. Kennedy

In 1946 John F. Kennedy was elected for the 11th Congressional District of Massachusetts as the Democratic Party candidate. He served three terms in the House of Representatives, all during the Democratic administrations of President Harry S. Truman. As a new member of the Congress of the United States, Kennedy supported legislation that would serve the interests of his constituents. Although he usually backed the bills sponsored by his party, he often showed his independence by voting with the Republicans against measures sponsored by the Truman administration. He also joined with Republicans in criticizing the Truman administration’s failure to support the Chinese Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek against the communists led by Mao Zedong.

Kennedy decided to run against the incumbent Republican Senator for Massachusetts Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. in 1952. Because he was little known outside his congressional district, Kennedy began his campaign two years before the election and met thousands of voters throughout Massachusetts. As a result, Kennedy defeated Lodge by 70,000 votes, despite the fact that Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Republican presidential candidate in the same year, won the state by 208,000 votes.

B

Senator John F. Kennedy

As a candidate for the Senate, Kennedy had promised the voters that he would do more for Massachusetts than Lodge had done. During his first two years as senator he backed legislation beneficial to the Massachusetts textile, fishing, watch, and haulage industries. In 1953, however, he defied regional interests and supported the St Lawrence Seaway project—a system of canals that allowed sea-going ships to reach the Great Lakes, thus bypassing New England ports. Later, in 1955, he was the only senator from New England to support renewal of the Reciprocal Trade Agreement Act that gave the president the power to lower US tariffs, or taxes on imported goods, in exchange for similar concessions from other countries.

In 1953 Kennedy married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier (1929-1994). They had four children: a daughter, who was stillborn in 1956; Caroline (1957- ); and two sons, John (1960-1999), born 17 days after the presidential election in 1960, and Patrick Bouvier, who died less than 48 hours after his birth in 1963.

Less than a year after his marriage, Kennedy underwent two back operations. During his convalescence, Kennedy wrote Profiles in Courage, a book of essays on American politicians who risked their careers standing up for just but unpopular causes. Published in 1956, the book received the Pulitzer Prize in 1957. Because of the success of Profiles in Courage, many people who had known little about Kennedy came to admire him, both for his literary skill and for his understanding of the great issues of American history.

C

Presidential Election of 1956

At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1956, Kennedy made the nomination speech for former Illinois governor Adlai Stevenson as Democratic candidate for the presidency. Stevenson, breaking with tradition, left the selection of a vice-presidential candidate to the vote of the convention. Kennedy attempted to win the nomination but on the third ballot the convention chose Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee. Kennedy then moved that the vote be made unanimous.

Kennedy’s failure to gain the vice-presidential nomination probably did more good than harm to his political career. The convention had brought him to the attention of Americans without associating him with Stevenson, who, for the second time, lost the election to Eisenhower.

D

Later Senate Career of John F. Kennedy

In 1957 Kennedy became a member of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was a severe critic of France’s refusal to make concessions to its colony, Algeria, and he advocated Algerian independence. He urged increased economic aid to underdeveloped nations. Later he won a place on the Senate Committee on Improper Activities and became an advocate of the rights of union members to union meetings, free speech and assembly, and the election of union officers by secret ballot. In 1958 Kennedy stood for re-election in Massachusetts. His margin of victory, 874,000 votes, was the largest ever recorded in a Massachusetts senatorial contest.